76 MILITARY COMMISSION TO EUROPE. 



With the means thus provided, the cantonists furnish excellent non-commissioned officers 

 clerks, musicians, master workmen, veterinaries, &c., &c. 



This would seem to be the proper place for alluding to the laws with regard to the marriage 

 of officers and men. 



No officer is allowed to marry without permission ; this permission is granted only when 

 either the officer, or the lady whom he is about to marry, possesses a certain amount of property. 

 This amount is different for different grades, and is intended to be sufficient to enable the officer 

 to support his family in a manner befitting his condition during his life, and to give them a 

 decent competence after his death. The marriage of the soldiers is encouraged, for the reason 

 that the institution of the cantonists prevents their children from being an incumbrance to the 

 regiment and a burden upon the State. 



Wherever it is possible, suites of rooms are appropriated to the married soldiers ; more than 

 one family usually living in the same room. 



Voluntary enlistments are comparatively few. To every volunteer who presents himself the 

 government advances a certain bounty, which it receives back again from the first conscript who 

 desires a substitute. The greater part of the bounty is invested for the volunteer, who receives 

 but a small portion of it before the expiration of his enlistment. 



THE MILITAKY COLONIES. 



Those for the cavalry and horse artillery are in the south of Eussia. 



(a) The Ukraine colony, in the government of Charkoff: here are the 2d reserve cavalry corps, 

 the 6th division of light cavalry, and 6th brigade of horse artillery. 



(5) Colony of south Eussia, in the government of Cherson : 1st reserve cavalry corps. 



(c) Colony of the Boug, in the government of Podolia : 4th division of light cavalry, and the 

 4th brigade of horse artillery. 



(d) Colony of the lower Boug, in the government of Cherson : 5th division of light cavalry, 

 and 5th brigade of horse artillery. 



The reserve light cavalry division, and the reserve batteries of the horse artillery belonging 

 to the infantry corps, are also in these colonies. 



The arrangement of the colonies is as follows : one-half the ground is reserved for the support 

 of the troops, and is cultivated by the colonists ; the other half is divided among the colonists, 

 each family having 240 acres, one plough, and a house. From 40 to 50 houses form a platoon, 

 180 to 190 a squadron, or village, and from 6 to 10 squadrons a regiment. 



The officers preserve military and civil order among the colonists. 



Each house is required to feed and lodge a soldier, without his horse, the soldier assisting his 

 host in his work. The colonist is exempt from all taxes, military liabilities, &c. The posses- 

 sion passes down to the eldest son, and renders him exempt from military duties, while the other 

 sons become cantonists, like soldiers' children, and are eventually taken into the regiment. 



In the colonies every married soldier has a separate house. In every village there are stables, 

 riding houses, hospitals, arsenals, &c. 



The infantry colonies, near Novgorod, are no longer true colonies ; the system has been 

 abandoned there, and at present certain troops are cantoned there, under no peculiar regulations. 



